Children can book their Covid vaccine online from half-term next week

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Children will be able to book Covid vaccines online from next week as No10 tries to ‘ramp up’ lagging vaccination rate in teenagers.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs today teenagers between 12-15 will be able to book appointments online from next week during the half-term break.

‘To make the most of half-term next week, we will now be opening up the national booking service to all 12 to 15-year-olds to have their Covid vaccinations in existing national vaccination centres, which will offer families more flexibility,’ he said. 

The Government hopes making getting appointments easier while students are not at school will help address the slow roll out of the vaccine to this age group.

Only yesterday it was revealed that just 15 per cent of the age group in England have had their first dose, despite becoming eligible for a month. 

But uptake was even worse in some areas of England, with some regions reporting as few as one in 30 having received the jab.

While children themselves face a tiny risk of dying of Covid, it is hoped vaccinating them will help stem the rising tide of cases in the UK, as immunity in the over 50s begin to wane and the country heads into winter.

Random swabbing data suggests around 8 per cent of secondary school pupils were carrying the virus last week. Separate figures show infection rates in children have reached record highs. 

In addition to announcing the expansion of the online booking system Mr Javid also called on Britain’s youth to step forward and get vaccinated.  

‘I think it is important anyone who is invited as eligible for a vaccine, including young people, that they do come forward and take up that offer,’ he said. 

The latest attendance data from the Department for Education shows the number of children out of school for Covid related reasons in England has risen over the past fortnight.

The DfE estimates that 2.6 per cent of all pupils – around 208,700 children – were not in class for reasons connected to coronavirus on Thursday last week.

This is up from 204,300 children, or 2.5 per cent of all pupils, on September 30.  

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton welcomed Mr Javid’s announcement, stating that vaccination was key to tackling the school attendance problem.

‘It was painfully slow to get underway in some areas and has been beset by logistical problems, not to mention being disrupted by the irresponsible actions of anti-vaccination protesters,’ he said.  

‘The announcement from NHS England that young people can attend vaccination drop-in centres during the half-term holiday is a big help and we hope they will do so in sufficient numbers to help slow the spread of the virus in schools and colleges.’

The NHS online booking system for vaccines is currently only available to over-16s. 

Mr Javid did not make it clear if children will require parental consent to complete their online booking for the vaccine.

Currently parents and guardians in England are sent a letter or email from the NHS with information about when the vaccine will be offered at their child’s school and asking for their consent for it to be given.

If a parent refuses, their child can overrule them if they are deemed competent enough to make that decision. 

Ministers have previously hinted of plans to create walk-in vaccine clinics for schoolchildren in an effort to speed up the jabs rollout.

This idea is also said to be an attempt to keep anti-vaxxers away from the school gates. 

Analysis yesterday revealed that vaccination rates for young teens in England have lagged behind Scotland and Wales.

A significant part of England is languishing in the single digits in terms of vaccine uptake among young teens with London hosting most of the poor performers.

The capital’s boroughs of Barking and Dagenham (3.5 per cent), Newham (5.2 per cent), Lewisham (5.2 per cent),Tower Hamlets (5.6 per cent), and Waltham Forest (5.7 per cent) had the lowest vaccine uptake in England.  

In comparison the roll-out is going particularly well north of the border in Scotland, where the vaccination rate is about 46.5 per cent.

But some areas of the country, such as Dumfries and Galloway having already jabbed almost two-thirds of their young teens. 

The overall take-up for Wales as of October 10 was 21.8 per cent.

Northern Ireland has yet to begin publishing vaccination figures for 12 to 15-year-olds. 

First doses of Covid vaccine started being rolled out to all the UK’s 3.2million 12 to 15-year-olds on September 20. 

But the move was heavily controversial, with concerns over a rare risk of heart inflammation called myocarditis — estimated to strike up to one in 20,000 boys under the age of 16 after their second jab. Girls are at less risk of the complication.

While in most cases the condition is mild, scientists do not know the long term implications. 

Earlier this year the Government’s vaccine advisors, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) advised against routinely vaccinating healthy 12 to 15-year-olds because they have just a one in 2million chance of dying from Covid.

The JCVI urged ministers to seek advice from England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and his fellow chief medical officers in the devolved nations about the wider benefits vaccination could provide.

Professor Whitty eventually ruled that youngsters would benefit getting vaccinated against Covid, despite the odds of them becoming critically ill from the virus about two in a million.  

The controversial vaccination of young people is one of the cornerstones of the Government’s Covid winter strategy. 

Alongside the also slow going, over-50s Covid booster jab, these measures were supposed to help protect the UK’s health system from the full brunt of winter this year, the first where both flu and Covid will be in active circulation simultaneously. 

But now, much like the 12-to-15 year-old jab program, the program is well behind schedule with latest estimates indicating nearly 5million vulnerable adults have yet to get a booster jab.

SAGE adviser ‘Professor Lockdown‘ Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, today insisted it was ‘critical we accelerate’ the booster drive to give ourselves the best chance of avoiding having to bring back curbs.

And Sir David King, who was the Government’s chief scientific adviser from 2000 to 2007, criticised the rollout for moving ‘extremely slowly’.

Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of the NHS, insisted the health service has ‘plenty of capacity’ to vaccinate all eligible people immediately but said people are not coming forward quickly enough. She told MPs on the Health Committee: ‘It’s really important that we now absolutely do get the message out that is Covid is still with us.’

But some experts also say the booster programme is going slower because the UK is juggling administering first jabs to children in secondary schools and running the largest flu vaccination programme in history. 

Pictures today show clinics lying virtually empty, some of which are not open for booster jab walk-ins — further highlighting the complexity of Britain’s current rollout.

It comes against the backdrop of rising cases with 49,156 infections recorded yesterday — the highest daily figure in three months. Downing Street warned that Britons should prepare for a ‘challenging few months’.

Boris Johnson’s spokesman said there were ‘currently’ no plans to reintroduce Plan B restrictions — which include face masks and working from home guidance — but that ministers were keeping ‘a very close watch on the latest statistics’. 

Meanwhile, experts today also warned that a subvariant of the Covid Delta strain could be more infectious than its ancestor. Official data shows it was behind nearly one in 10 cases earlier this month — with the proportion having doubled within the space of a month.